Every year, more Australians are injured at work than on our roads. Some injuries are visible. Others are psychological and unseen. Yet we rarely talk about what happens afterwards.
Episode One: Origins of Control — Why do we have these systems?
Shattered begins in Lithgow, one of the industrial towns that helped build modern Australia, before travelling through Cobar and Wollongong. What begins as a personal search becomes an exploration of the historical, social and political forces that shaped how Australia responds when work changes a life — and the communities that cared for people long before formal systems existed.
Episode Two: Doctor Doctor — How do we help people recover?
The journey continues through NSW, Victoria, Canberra and Queensland, turning from the origins of our systems to what happens after injury. From the legacy of asbestos to the growing challenge of psychological injury, Doctor Doctorexplores how medicine, work, compensation and care intersect — and what helps recovery rather than adding to the harm.
Filmed across Australia over more than three years, Shattered discovers that understanding rarely comes from reports alone. Sometimes it comes from the places where people live, work, remember and rebuild.
Across generations, the questions remain remarkably human: What helps people recover? What have we learned? And how do we create workplaces and communities where people continue to belong after injury?
At its heart is one simple question:
What happens after work changes a life?
Host a Screening | Upcoming Community Screenings
Join an upcoming community screening of SHATTERED or enquire about hosting a screening in your area.
Episode 1: The Origins of Control - Available from August 2026
Episode 2: Doctor, Doctor -Available from October 2026
Note: Community Screenings Feature - Episode 1 at this stage
Screenings are being developed for workplaces, universities, healthcare settings, faith communities and local groups.
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Reflect
Use guided questions to explore how injury affects people, families and communities — and what care requires.
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Respond
Host conversations that strengthen understanding, connection and support when people need it most.
Why We Made Shattered?
A workplace injury changes lives. Sometimes a workplace tragedy changes generations.
Every year at Windy Gully, the community of Mt Kembla gathers to remember the 96 men and boys who never came home from work.
More than 120 years later, their loss is still felt.
Shattered explores what happens after injury, and how its consequences can ripple through families, communities and generations.
Episode 1 - Origins of Control
Workplace injury has always carried a human and family cost.
In towns like Lithgow, where coal mines, railways and steelworks powered a young nation, families and communities often carried that burden together.
Episode One explores how Australia's response to workplace injury evolved over time. As systems become more complex, what happens to care?
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Environmental Analysis
Examine wider community and identify audiences and assumptions playing into existing narrative. Fact Check. Is it true?
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Strategic Storytelling
Facts tell, stories sell. As necessary correct the backstory with facts, evidence and stories.
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Show New Story
People are wired for stories. Use memes, images, metaphors and channels of communication that resonate with audience. Keep it human and authentic.
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Journey With New Story
It takes time to change a dysfunctional story. Stay the course. Measure and adjust. Build collaborative partnerships of care to embed new story.
Our Framework
We are currently fact checking a number of ambiguous and inconsistent issues that we have identified across other platforms to clarify. Accordingly, this website will be updated on a regular basis so please check back. If you have information that you would like us to consider, please use the contact page and we will be in touch. We appreciate your time.
Evidence-Informed. Non-Partisan.
Shattered is an independent documentary grounded in social history, parliamentary material, and regulatory records.
It is not aligned with any political party or institution.
Its purpose is clarity — and to help people better understand what happens after workplace injury.
#shattereddoco
Episode 2 - Doctor, Doctor
Workplace injury is rarely only a medical event. It can change a person’s health, identity, family life and connection to work—and place enormous pressure on those who care for them.
Healthcare professionals are often among the first people asked to make sense of what has happened. Yet few outside medicine understand the pressure doctors can face when they are required not only to care, but also to assess risk, document injury and make decisions within complex and sometimes contested systems.
From the legacy of asbestos in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley to the growing challenge of psychological injury across Australia, Doctor, Doctor brings healthcare professionals, people with lived experience, support groups and families into the same conversation. Together, they explore what helps people feel safe, heard and able to hope—and what those providing care need to sustain that connection.
Shaped by grief, loss and lives profoundly changed, this is also a story of hope: a shared determination to build a more compassionate response in which care supports recovery and trust is protected.
Episode 2 asks what happens to healing when care and contest collide. Can the two coexist—and what helps preserve compassion and human connection when they do?
